


Together

by mademoisellePlume



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Animorphs Secret Santa, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-25
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-06 01:10:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1100674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mademoisellePlume/pseuds/mademoisellePlume
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for puppiesandsissiesandchastity for the Animorphs Secret Santa!</p><p>Tobias and Rachel snuggles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Together

Their 'together time' was always chunked into bits.

Seperated by his ducking into bathrooms or wherever else was isolated and convenient. By her grouchiness in the moments after he returned, her jealousy of the impermanence of his form quite apparent.

He never knew quite what to do about that. He was who and what he was. And he wasn't ready to change that.

But give her a few moments and she would warm again, hooking her arm through his and running her hand casually through his hair, commenting on the clothes he'd been given to wear this time, and flling him in on meaningless gossip from school.

Better to talk of gossip then of real news.

Better something neither of them really cared about then what they did.

Things got both harder and easier as the war wore on. They spoke in code more easily as they enjoyed public outings.

They spoke of Toby, in terms that might sound like they spoke of a child Tobias babysat and tutored -which he did, in a way. They speak of a Valley that has a commune of sorts, which in a way, it did. They're simultaneously more and less fearful in public, experience making them bold, but paranoia forcing them to speak carefully.

One of the times spent together that they hold most dear in both of their hearts was when their part of California gained a light dusting of snow, the temperature dropping to what they might have thought was cold before they'd visited the Artic. Before they'd felt frostbite creeping into their flesh.

They sat together in his meadow, Rachel's arms around Tobias, the drink tray she'd brought out here lying on the ground besides them.

He leaned into her chest and sipped the hot chocolate she'd brought him. Her own cup sat besides them, steaming into the cold air. Her jacket had been taken off and put over Tobias' lap, since when he morphed into his human form, he still wore nothing but his morphing suit.

They talked fondly of tactics and their hopes for the rest of the war. They didn't do more then touch on the end of it, since that was a concept they could barely imagine other then some distant concept of peace and freedom.

But they spoke of the Yeerk Peace Movement, and how incomprehensible it seemed. They spoke of how, despite how terrifying the cannibalistic impulses of Visser Three had always been, his idiotic methods and stubborn belief in the 'Andalite Bandits' was useful.

They spoke of Melissa, and Tom, the vulnerable ones that they thought they could afford to be invested in as individuals, and not as a faceless mass of innocents. They wondered about the motivations of volunteers, and speculated on what the Sharing's next technique's for recruitment would be.

As they spoke, they stayed warm with the shared body heat, watching the woods, Rachel sometimes dropping fond kisses on his cheek.

It was a wonderful afternoon, with soft sunlight warming the slightly frozen forest around them.

"Do you think we'd still have known each other if we'd gone home a different way that night?" Tobias asked suddenly, when their conversation hit a pleasant pause.

She hummed softly as she thought, reaching a bit lower to take one of his hands in both of hers, thumbs rubbing his knuckles gently. "Tobias, I was noticing you even before that. I don't think there's a way we'd ever have lived entirely seperate lives." She tells him, her voice quiet and firm and with a little spark of intensity.

He smiles at the thought of how much he mattered to her.

The entire day might have been used that way, in a golden sort of peace unmarred by their chatter of war. Except for the everpresent time limit that kept Tobias limited.

And except for the mental sound of Jake's voice, calling for them, in the sort of tone that promised them he had a mission in mind.

Tobias chuckled as Rachel straightened eagerly, and he finished his hot chocolate. "Ready?" He asked as she released him, getting up somewhat awkwardly and turning to offer her his hand, not noticing the jacket falling to the ground.

She took his hand and stood up. "Always."


End file.
